Soil Trec (KB-14-002-023, KB-14-001-033)

Through unsustainable land use practices soil losses will be much faster than formation - with the consequence that soil has become a finite resource. The central scientific hypothesis of the EU SoilTrEC project is that the key to soil genesis and function is the development of the physical structure of soil. It is further hypothesized that formation of stable aggregates depends on the type and content of soil organic matter (SOM), the content of clay minerals and nanometer-scale colloidal oxide particles (nanooxides), and the ionic composition of the soil solution. The SoilTrEC project will measure important chemical and  biological parameters, and apply empirical models of soil carbon and food web dynamics, to understand how changes in biodiversity and function within the soil food web affect the pools of carbon that help maintain favorable soil aggregates.